A phobia is an irrational and intense fear caused by a specific object, situation, or activity. Phobias are diagnosed mental disorders that cause distress and prevent normal functioning when exposed to the feared stimulus. Common phobias include fear of heights, animals, and social situations. Treatment involves medication and behavioral therapies like exposure therapy which helps reduce fear responses over time.

2.  Phobias: A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder that causes an individual to
experience extreme, irrational fear about a situation, living creature, place, or
object.
 When a person has a phobia, they will often shape their lives to avoid what they
consider to be dangerous. The imagined threat is greater than any actual threat
posed by the cause of terror.
 Phobias are diagnosable mental disorders.
 The person will experience intense distress when faced with the source of their
phobia. This can prevent them from functioning normally and sometimes leads to
panic attacks.

3.  Phobias are more serious than simple fear sensations and are not limited to fears
of specific triggers.
 Despite individuals being aware that their phobia is irrational, they cannot
control the fear reaction.
 Symptoms may include sweating, chest pains, and pins and needles.
 Treatment can include medication and behavioral therapy.
 19 million people in the United States have a phobia.

4.  A phobia is an exaggerated and irrational fear.
 The term 'phobia' is often used to refer to a fear of one particular trigger. However,
there are three types of phobia recognized by the American Psychiatric Association
(APA). These include:
 Specific phobia: This is an intense, irrational fear of a specific trigger.
 Social phobia, or social anxiety: This is a profound fear of public humiliation and being
singled out or judged by others in a social situation. The idea of large social gatherings
is terrifying for someone with social anxiety. It is not the same as shyness.
 Agoraphobia: This is a fear of situations from which it would be difficult to escape if a
person were to experience extreme panic, such being in a lift or being outside of the
home. It is commonly misunderstood as a fear of open spaces but could also apply to
being confined in a small space, such as an elevator, or being on public transport.
People with agoraphobia have an increased risk of panic disorder.

5.  Symptoms
 A person with a phobia will experience the following symptoms. They are common
across the majority of phobias:
 a sensation of uncontrollable anxiety when exposed to the source of fear
 a feeling that the source of that fear must be avoided at all costs
 not being able to function properly when exposed to the trigger
 acknowledgment that the fear is irrational, unreasonable, and exaggerated,
combined with an inability to control the feelings

6.  The most common specific phobias in the U.S. include:
 Claustrophobia: Fear of being in constricted, confined spaces
 Aerophobia: Fear of flying
 Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders
 Driving phobia: Fear of driving a car
 Emetophobia: Fear of vomiting
 Erythrophobia: Fear of blushing
 Hypochondria: Fear of becoming ill – Also known as illness anxiety disorder
 Zoophobia: Fear of animals
 Aquaphobia: Fear of water
 Acrophobia: Fear of heights
 Blood, injury, and injection (BII) phobia: Fear of injuries involving bloodTrusted Source
 Escalaphobia: Fear of escalators
 Kinemortophobia – Can anyone guess what this one is?

7.  It is unusual for a phobia to start after the age of 30 years, and most begin during
early childhood, the teenage years, or early adulthood.
 Specific phobias
 These usually develop before the age of 4 to 8 years. In some cases, it may be the
result of a traumatic early experience. One example would be claustrophobia
developing over time after a younger child has an unpleasant experience in a
confined space.
 Phobias that start during childhood can also be caused by witnessing the phobia of
a family member. A child whose mother has arachnophobia, for example, is much
more likely to develop the same phobia.

8.  How the brain works during a phobia
 Some areas of the brain store and recall dangerous or potentially deadly events.
 If a person faces a similar event later on in life, those areas of the brain retrieve
the stressful memory, sometimes more than once. This causes the body to
experience the same reaction.
 In a phobia, the areas of the brain that deal with fear and stress keep retrieving
the frightening event inappropriately.
 Researchers have found that phobias are often linked to the amygdalaTrusted
Source, which lies behind the pituitary gland in the brain. The amygdala can
trigger the release of "fight-or-flight" hormones. These put the body and mind in a
highly alert and stressed state.

9.  Phobias are highly treatable, and people who have them are nearly always aware
of their disorder. This helps diagnosis a great deal.
 It is not possible to avoid the triggers of some phobias, as is often the case with
complex phobias. In these cases, speaking to a mental health professional can be
the first step to recovery.
 Most phobias can be cured with appropriate treatment. There is no single
treatment that works for every person with a phobia. Treatment needs to be
tailored to the individual for it to work.
 The provider may recommend behavioral therapy, medications, or a combination
of both. Therapy is aimed at reducing fear and anxiety symptoms and helping
people manage their reactions to the object of their phobia.

10.  Beta blockers
 Antidepressants
 Tranquilizers: Benzodiazepines
 Desensitization, or exposure therapy: This can help people with a phobia alter their
response to the source of fear. They are gradually exposed to the cause of their phobia
over a series of escalating steps. For example, a person with aerophobia, or a fear of
flying on a plane, may take the following steps under guidance:
 They will first think about flying.
 The therapist will have them look at pictures of planes.
 The person will go to an airport.
 They will escalate further by sitting in a practice simulated airplane cabin.
 Finally, they will board a plane.

11.  Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): The doctor, therapist, or counselor helps the
person with a phobia learn different ways of understanding and reacting to the
source of their phobia. This can make coping easier. Most importantly, CBT can
teach a person experiencing phobia to control their own feelings and thoughts.

12.  Obsessions are repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety.
Common symptoms include:
 Fear of germs or contamination
 Unwanted forbidden or taboo thoughts involving sex, religion, or harm
 Aggressive thoughts towards others or self
 Having things symmetrical or in a perfect order
 Compulsions are repetitive behaviors that a person with OCD feels the urge to do
in response to an obsessive thought

13.  A person with OCD generally:
 Can't control his or her thoughts or behaviors, even when those thoughts or
behaviors are recognized as excessive
 Spends at least 1 hour a day on these thoughts or behaviors
 Doesn’t get pleasure when performing the behaviors or rituals, but may feel brief
relief from the anxiety the thoughts cause
 Experiences significant problems in their daily life due to these thoughts or
behaviors

14.  OCD is a common disorder that affects adults, adolescents, and children all over
the world. Most people are diagnosed by about age 19, typically with an earlier
age of onset in boys than in girls, but onset after age 35 does happen.
 Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), which include selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors (SSRIs) are used to help reduce OCD symptoms.
 SRIs often require higher daily doses in the treatment of OCD than of depression
and may take 8 to 12 weeks to start working, but some patients experience more
rapid improvement.

15.  Psychotherapy can be an effective treatment for adults and children with OCD.
Research shows that certain types of psychotherapy, including cognitive behavior
therapy (CBT) and other related therapies (e.g., habit reversal training) can be as
effective as medication for many individuals. Research also shows that a type of
CBT called Exposure Therapy.

16.  While alcohol and other central nervous system (CNS) depressants, including
benzodiazepines—such as alprazolam (Xanax) and lorazepam (Ativan)—as well as
barbiturates, may initially appear to have calming effects on an individual’s
degree of stress, excessive use of these drugs can lead to impairments in an
individual’s physical and mental functioning, which can be a major source of
stress.
 More commonly, though, withdrawal from alcohol and other CNS depressant
drugs may trigger rebound anxiety and even panic attacks. Further, this can
increase the individual’s risk for relapse.

17.  Marijuana Use
 Marijuana use, on the other hand, may not directly contribute to the development
of anxiety symptoms, though in some cases using marijuana can exacerbate pre-
existing symptoms of anxiety.
 For instance, marijuana use can lead to symptoms that mimic that of a panic
attack, such as:
 A racing heart.
 Difficulty breathing.
 Lightheadedness.
 Feeling of being detached from oneself.
 Poor motor coordination.

18.  Stimulant Drug Use
 Stimulant drugs are most commonly linked with both the onset and exacerbation
of anxiety, as they lead to a rapid excitement of the neurotransmitters in the
brain.